About this issue
With 900 million users, Telegram has become the fastest growing blockchain this year. In the past two months, we have launched three articles around TON, including the AI applet TypoX on tg and the new game OUTA by Little Ghost, as well as an interview note with Telegram founder Pavel Durov (to help us better understand the past and present of Telegram and TON).
Since the TON ecosystem is quite different from $ETH and $SOL , there have been constant controversies in the past few months. How to view TON more comprehensively? So we invited YanXin, the co-founder of Sign, to share his thoughts.
Sign has a deep connection with Ethereum (as can be heard from the name of its first product, ethsign). At the same time, it has been exploring the TON ecosystem since the end of 2022, and has launched mini-programs and incubators on TON. YanXin himself has been traveling between the United States and Singapore for many years, and has a good understanding of the ecosystems of the East and the West. Recently, he launched the TON incubator Triangle with notcoin and 1inch, and I believe it can bring everyone a more comprehensive perspective.
In the second half of this podcast, we discussed a lot about globalization and Network State. With the rise of digital nomads, when we travel between countries, we inevitably need to prove my identity, assets, work, etc. in country A to country B, which is often a time-consuming and laborious task (refer to my experience of proving that my daughter is my daughter). Blockchain itself is global and borderless. If this information can be put on the chain and then provided as a SAAS service, it can bring great convenience. Based on this, we also discussed two ways to achieve Network State. Making "everything provable" is also the vision of Sign, and the globalization of Telegram and TON can accelerate it.
Whether you are a builder, digital nomad or looking to start more international travel, I believe this podcast can bring you some gains, enjoy!
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This episode's guests & hosts
Guest Yan Xin
YanXin, Sign Co-Founder & CEO, aims to build a global verification system. Its products include ethsign (document verification), tokentable (token distribution, recently released TON version), SignPass (on-chain ID). YanXin is also one of the translators of the Chinese version of Network State.
Host Ruby
Web3Brand owner, 10+ years of Internet experience, worked in many technology companies including Amazon. Twitter/X @rubywxt1; Farcaster @rubywang; rubywang.eth
Host Star
Web3Brand owner, user product manager for more than 10 years, with skills spanning content communities, e-commerce platforms and artificial intelligence, exploring how to become a super individual in the era of globalization. Twitter/X @starzqeth; Farcaster @starzq.eth; Immediately starzq.eth
Some interesting insights
TON
Chains like ETH and Solana are all in the same category, and they all belong to the business of Web 3. The user mobility in them is actually highly consistent. But TON is a completely different thing. The people it covers are very different from the Web3 circle I just mentioned, and it also has a large number of real users.
Which social platform has the most people doing Crypto? I think Telegram has more people than Twitter, because some people, such as the Korean community, don’t use Twitter because they don’t speak English, but the Korean community is all in Telegram.
The key players in the TON ecosystem are divided into three categories: foundation, developer communities such as the open platform, open builders (also the developer of NotCoin), Taiwan's TONX, and key projects such as catizen, hamster
The lending platform on TON is the closest to Yu'ebao in WeChat and Alipay. The users and funds you can reach are extremely large. TON has USDT, Bitcoin, and TON, and all three of them can generate interest. If a lending platform can maximize one of these three, and then allow ordinary Telegram users to deposit money into it through USDT payments, I think this will be very, very bullish, which means that your upper limit is the bank deposit service for 1 billion people, which is very powerful.
A healthy ecosystem should allow everyone to bring their own abilities and various interesting things to the chain to be assetized. For example, you can do WeChat reading, knowledge payment, and emoticon packages, which is a fun thing.
Network State
No matter how many political factors or other factors are against globalization, globalization itself is a technological trend. For example, the time it takes to fly from China to the United States is getting shorter and shorter, right? Today I also saw Elon Musk say that his Starship will develop a national express delivery business. Then the first application that can globalize any simple function has great value. For example, Bitcoin is the first global currency. Payment networks like Visa, including Crypto and Ethereum, also have a lot of value from the fact that they can be used worldwide. So Telegram is actually working hard to expand its globalization based on a chat tool (to be the first chat tool that can make global payments).
I think we may see the first digital country within this decade, and it should be directly placed on the chain.
Sometimes we say that China's digital payment is advanced, in fact, it is because we skipped credit cards and went directly to mobile payment. In fact, for many small countries, it may be more concise and efficient to skip the SaaS system and go directly to the Web3 system.
Two Directions for Implementing Network State
Directly package this set of on-chain SaaS into a set of applications and sell it to small countries;
The second direction is like the SuperTeam that Zuzalu or Solana are doing now, which is to establish a base in each place first. As long as you enter the building, you will find that they are all like-minded people. We have a similar set of values and use our own special currency (Solana, ETH). This is another way to play.
It is the habit of migratory birds to live in different places, and they have to migrate every year. I think if there is a peaceful world in the future, it must be because there are enough people traveling internationally.
Timestamp
02:45 YanXin introduces himself and why he expanded from Ethereum (ETH) to TON ecosystem for exploration
04:39 The core difference between TON, ETH, and Solana: users are not the same group of people
06:08 Sign From Tokentable and incubators to TON ecosystem, we build infrastructure for token distribution
08:49 In-depth sharing of TON ecosystem: user portrait, core players (foundation, developer community, top projects), programming language
17:28 Tokentable's business model sharing, which will support the Airdrop of some exciting projects (such as the DOGS 42 million user airdrop that just went online)
21:59 YanXin's three most promising tracks in the TON ecosystem: Yu'ebao on the chain, emoji trading market, and EVM compatibility layer
26:44 Long-term opportunities for TON: Do things that exist in WeChat but not in TON
30:05 Comprehensive comparison of TON, ETH and Solana
32:27 Telegram's global vision and its position in the cryptocurrency field
35:15 Globalization itself is a technological trend. The first application that can globalize any simple function has great value (Bitcoin, Visa)
36:58 Why Telegram finally chose Dubai as its global headquarters
39:26 Sign's overall vision and positioning of each sub-product
43:42 Tokentable's key role in on-chain assetization and future development direction
45:47 Long-term vison: We may see the first digital state (Network State) within ten years, and it should be placed directly on the chain.
47:02 Sign An application for digital nomads: Prove your on-chain assets when renting an apartment in New York
48:46 How can I better prove my identity, assets, and work in country A to country B?
50:59 Two ways to achieve Network State: starting with a small country, or connecting the bases in each place
57:39 If we have a peaceful world one day, it must be because there are enough people traveling internationally.
01:01:47 Treat onchain as a sport and live a more free life as a digital nomad
01:02:35 Cultivating global awareness starts with taking children on a global trip
